Who reckons their s.state power amp gives the same 'punch' as..

Call me a skeptic guys.. but I remember being quite disappointed when I had my GT1000 + NL212 and it really lacked punch/air movement/soul, when compared to running the Axe into the FX loop of my 50w valve amp + NL212. It really was night and day.

I'd be happy to give that a try again sometime but both GT1000 and NL have since been sold, which was probably a year or so ago. Would love to try it with my Friedman 2x12 cab to see how it goes now..

For those of you who are running one 2x12 as opposed to two 2x12s with your Matrix power amp, are you adding FILTER blocks here and there to 'beef' things up a bit?! Would love to know what the secret is!! If there is a secret..

Cheers.
 
There is no such thing as a "soul" in an amp, it's just physics, the type of circuit, and specs of components. An amp is an amp is an amp.

Now, there's a fundamental difference between a tube and an SS amp. More precisely, tube amps are current drivers with no or limited negative feedback, while SS amps are voltage drivers with 100% negative feedback. This is what makes all the difference, aside from power amp distortion, compression etc, which, I assume, is dialed in anyway.

Each speaker and each type of cabinet has a unique impedance curve. It has a frequency around which its impedance rises sharply (there's a bump), and a frequency after which it rises gradually. When a cabinet is powered by a current driver (tube amp), there's a resonance, and output goes up for those frequencies. When it is powered by a voltage driver, the output goes down. The negative feedback in an amp dampens the resonances (in the case of SS amps, completely), so there output is flat. Modern speakers, designed to work with SS amps, have less efficient speakers by design which dampen the boosts at resonant frequencies. Guitar speakers are efficient and the boosts are more pronounced.

So when you connect a tube amp to a guitar cabinet, you get a nice low and high boost, which sounds pleasant to your ear. When you connect an SS amp, you don't get it, and maybe even get dampened resonant frequencies, thus lack of punch.

Specifically to alleviate this "problem", there's the Speaker page which allows control over those resonant frequencies, as people have mentioned here already. They are set for some generic cabs by default which aren't the same as YOUR cab. When there's a mismatch, your Axe and your Matrix try to boost your speaker where it's not at its resonant frequency, and it just cannot react properly. So it sounds like it has no "soul". Find those frequencies, and that "soul" will return.

What I find puzzling is this. Constructing a 100% voltage driver using tubes is difficult or impossible, as far as I understand. But it's easy to make an SS based current driver. So there's nothing that is preventing manufacturers from making SS amps that do react "properly" to cabinet impedance curves. Granted, it's not really needed in hifi, but for guitar applications it is useful, and manufacturers such as Matrix could have done it. Heck, with an SS amp this can be implemented easily enough to have a switch with 2 modes.
 
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If you use conventional cabs, then I think the speaker page is the key if you are not finding the amp models to your liking. Getting these parameters right brings the amps to life and makes them feel right as well imo. I have used an Axe FX for several years since the Ultra first came out but, when playing through real cabs, I always ended up going back to my amps and using the Axe for effects only.

I got a Marshall 4x12 a while back and noticed that some of the Marshall models sounded and felt pretty good through that cab. I checked the speaker page and noticed that the amp models that sounded the best had very similar speaker page settings so I used those settings as the start point to fine tune for my cab and it worked. I managed to do similar for my 2x12's and nowadays, I am happy using the amp models through real cabs.

Looking at a few amps that might typically be paired with your cab in the real world is a good place to start in my experience. With the Quantum firmware and the right speaker page settings, it is damn close to the real thing nowadays.
 
Im a little on the fence at present.

I have my GT1000, which replaced a GT800, which replaced an XT800.....

Those who know me will remember I was the second ever Matrix owner, and did work with the company initially to "tweek" the XT to the GT800 state. Im probably the reason why any took the plunge, and why the amp took off. Thats not to say Im the sole reason.... the product and support must be right first and foremost and the Matrix is.

I went to the Matrix as I was fed up of lugging a VHT 2/50/.2 round in my rack. My back and knees arnt the best and I needed to lighten the load. I could get the GT800 sounding very close to the VHT - though I did prefer the VHT slightly if I was pushed, but the weight saving was the kicker. I kept the VHT for home use though - until the AFX2 came out, and I needed to raise some cash to switch from my old standard. The VHT was sold for this reason only.

Ive been more than happy with my GT800, and later a GT1000 for many years, but recently have been putting the AFX rig up against some TOP amps at a few gatherings, and there was something just lacking. I tried everything my years of AFX experience told me to try - event he speaker page which helped a lot - but still couldnt nail it perfectly.

Anyway - I tried a VHT Power Station with a real amp (as the real amp was stupid loud) and was impressed how it maintained the original amps tone when the volume was equal (PS in and out of circuit), so I returned with the AFX rig to A/B the Power station with the Matrix. I bought a Power Station.

It just gave the the bits I couldnt dial in instantly. Its lighter than the 2/50/2 BUT I havent racked it - it sits on top of my rack like an attenuate so my rack is lighter than it was with the Matrix.

I still have my Matrix, though it is up for sale. If Id doesnt sell though (its not going for peanuts - its a great amp) Ill rack it and the Power Station in their own 4U "Power" Rack. It only needs 1 power cable and 1 patch cable extra to connect up on setup which takes all of 10 seconds so its not a big issue for me.

The Upshot is, I still firmly believe the Matrix is the best SS product to go with the AFX, or any other modelling/profiling rig (and if I didnt need to raise a few hundred as my house boiler is looking like it needs replacing it wouldnt be going anywhere) - but the Fryette Power Station is now my preferred amplification unit. Yes its valve and brigs with it some maintenance (not much though) and yes its heavier than the Matrix but the form factor kind of negates that for me - but it just does the right things without trying.
 
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